What happens to rockers who don’t die young?

What do the following individuals have in common: a political activist from Suffolk; a chartered psychologist from Oxfordshire, who enjoys playing golf at weekends; a funeral celebrant from Liverpool; the Birmingham-based chairperson of the Ladder Association Training Committee (‘When it’s right to use a ladder, use the ladder, and get trained to use it safely’); a pop star from LA? The answer is that all of them were pop stars, with the obvious exception of the pop star from LA who still is one. But even Robbie Williams used to be bigger.

In Exit Stage Left Nick Duerden sketches the afterlives of two dozen former or current musicians – ‘afterlife’ here signifying whatever befell them subsequent to the moment of their greatest triumph or notoriety, be it a string of sold-out dates at Knebworth (Robbie) or a drunken appearance on a late-night Channel 4 talk show (Wayne Hussey from the Leeds goth band the Mission).